A modest proposal
A Modest Proposal A modest proposal was written in 1729 by Johnathan Swift. Swift was born in Ireland. Swift moved to England, but later on became ruler of the St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He felt, for his own part, that he had been exiled to Ireland when he would have much preferred to have been in England, and his personal sense of the wrongs he had received at the hands of the English only intensified the anger he felt at the way England mistreated Ireland. He lived in an Ireland which was a colony, politically, militarily, and economically dependent upon England. It was manifestly in England 's interest to keep things as they were: a weak Ireland could not threaten England, and the measures which kept it weak were profitable for the English. As a result Ireland was a desperately poor country, overpopulated, full, as Swift said, of beggars, wracked periodically by famine, heavily taxed, and with no say at all in its own affairs. England controlled the Irish legislature. However, at this time was the Age of Enlightenment, which emphasized on logic, reason, and wit. Ireland was drastically suffering. Most of the people who lived in Ireland are Catholics, including Swift. Therefore, Catholics could not vote, hold office, buy land, or be educated even though they were in the majority. Catholics also became tenant farmers. Swift wrote this in Satire. Two components of satire are critizing or mocking how things are done (often harshly) and to bring about change. Swift creates a narrator who is not given a name. In Swift’s short satirical essay, “A Modest Proposal” the narrator is an ironic character because he is blind to the horrible moral implications of his proposal and favors only economic progress. One important way in which the author engages with the audience is to make them see deeper political, moral, and social truths and problems through his use of irony. The essay is certainly a satire that is aimed at making his contemporary readers recognize the kind of
Cited: Swift, Johnathan. “A Modest Proposal” A Modest Proposal and Other Satirical Works. Ed, Candace Ward, New York: Dover, 1996. 52-59. Print Phiddian, Robert. “Have You Eaten Yet? The Reader In A Modest Proposal.” Studies in English Literature(Rice) 36.3 (1996): 603. Academic Search Premier. Web. 21 Mar. 2014.